- Joined
- Feb 20, 2017
- Messages
- 19
Hello all!
I am Tortoise Woman and we're new to Sulcatas. We've owned turtles for awhile. A 2 yr old Northern Black-Knobbed Map turtle that we've raised from a hatchling. We also have a Mississippi Map turtle hatcling and a Common Musk hatchling. We wanted to get a tortoise at some point and were looking at Russian torts so I did a lot of research on their care. Just when we were thinking of a Sulcata a friend of ours offered us hers. Knowing this person as we did we thought we'd be getting a healthy tort. Well, we didn't.
Unfortunately they did no research on her care and she has suffered for it. She is 2 yrs old and is only 163 grams in weight. Never had any UVB or calcium so her shell is very soft with pyramiding and she can't walk properly. She belly crawls. Her diet was very poor. We've had her for two weeks and she's just now eating on her own. She had never eaten grass before but she's loving clippings from our yard. We took her to an excellent tortoise vet and we are force feeding her baby food mixed with liquid calcium and a high fiber powder called Critical Care. The vet was shocked at her poor condition. She gave us lots of good advice and answered all our questions. Also said our tort should be at least 2-3 times larger than she is at this age.
Her enclosure was very small with almost no substrate and a cheese nip box with a hole cut in it for a house. We just got her a new tortoise house and she's loving it. Crawling all over. We have towels in part of it so she can get around easier. Until she can actually walk we'll keep it like this. We take her outside when it's warm enough in a rabbit run (for her safety) and she loves that. She had never been outside before we got her. When she's bigger and in better health we'll make a nice big enclosure outside so she can spend more time there.
It will be at least a year before we will be able to call her healthy. Took her a long time to get this way, it's going to take a long time for her to get better. But she's finally showing signs of improvement!
Since she's so small, we've named her Tinkerbell.
I am Tortoise Woman and we're new to Sulcatas. We've owned turtles for awhile. A 2 yr old Northern Black-Knobbed Map turtle that we've raised from a hatchling. We also have a Mississippi Map turtle hatcling and a Common Musk hatchling. We wanted to get a tortoise at some point and were looking at Russian torts so I did a lot of research on their care. Just when we were thinking of a Sulcata a friend of ours offered us hers. Knowing this person as we did we thought we'd be getting a healthy tort. Well, we didn't.
Unfortunately they did no research on her care and she has suffered for it. She is 2 yrs old and is only 163 grams in weight. Never had any UVB or calcium so her shell is very soft with pyramiding and she can't walk properly. She belly crawls. Her diet was very poor. We've had her for two weeks and she's just now eating on her own. She had never eaten grass before but she's loving clippings from our yard. We took her to an excellent tortoise vet and we are force feeding her baby food mixed with liquid calcium and a high fiber powder called Critical Care. The vet was shocked at her poor condition. She gave us lots of good advice and answered all our questions. Also said our tort should be at least 2-3 times larger than she is at this age.
Her enclosure was very small with almost no substrate and a cheese nip box with a hole cut in it for a house. We just got her a new tortoise house and she's loving it. Crawling all over. We have towels in part of it so she can get around easier. Until she can actually walk we'll keep it like this. We take her outside when it's warm enough in a rabbit run (for her safety) and she loves that. She had never been outside before we got her. When she's bigger and in better health we'll make a nice big enclosure outside so she can spend more time there.
It will be at least a year before we will be able to call her healthy. Took her a long time to get this way, it's going to take a long time for her to get better. But she's finally showing signs of improvement!
Since she's so small, we've named her Tinkerbell.